Flashback | TIME
Senegal’s capital was unusually subdued for a Saturday night in late February. In Dakar’s popular Sicap Baobab district, the normally packed Toucan restaurant was empty and quiet, save for the voice of local pop star Cheikh Lô coming from speakers above the bar. In 1996 Lô hit international fame with Né La Thiass (Gone in a Flash), which warned about sudden changes of destiny. With Senegal emerging from a tumultuous election, the most keenly contested in its history, that lyric is timely again, echoing sentiment about the country’s tippy democratic traditions and life under newly re-elected 80-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade.
In the days before Senegal’s sixth multiparty presidential election since independence from France in 1960, rival political camps clashed violently and frequently in the streets. While factionalism exercised at the end of a stick may be a standard part of the political process in many parts of Africa, it was a shocking and unsettling occurrence here. “People are nervous — they don’t know what to expect,” the Toucan’s waitress said. “They are stocking up on groceries.” The West African country of some 12 million, mostly Muslim and from diverse indigenous tribes, has long been celebrated as one of the continent’s leading outposts of peace and stability. But Senegal’s secular government doesn’t look quite like the model it once did. “Democracy has been tarnished in the eyes of the people,” said Richard Reeve, Africa specialist at U.K.-based international-affairs think tank Chatham House. “This election was a dirty process. Normally it’s better in Senegal.”
Trouble had already been gathering in the weeks before polling, when an opposition protest was met with police batons and tear gas and leading opponents were detained. Two prominent critics of Wade reported receiving death threats. Others claim that on voting day, thousands of ballots were not delivered on time to opposition areas, which allowed Wade to clinch over 50% of the vote and avoid a runoff against Idrissa Seck, 47, once Wade’s most loyal lieutenant and now his most bitter rival. Despite noting “serious incidents” and “acts of vandalism against certain political leaders,” regional observers declared the election “sufficiently” free and fair. Seck accepted defeat, preferring to begin planning for the next poll in 2012, when he says he’ll push for real Sopi (change), co-opting the official slogan of Wade, who will be 85 years old at the next election.
Wade used to claim he treated Seck, his Prime Minister from September 2002 to April 2004, “like a son.” The younger man was widely seen as Wade’s heir apparent. The breakdown in their relationship — culminating in Seck’s seven-month stint behind bars on corruption charges Seck says were trumped up and which were later dismissed by judges — was widely seen as a power struggle between two ambitious politicians. But it also hinted at a generation shift in Senegalese society, repeated throughout much of Africa, where an increasingly restive youth are demanding representation and rights that older, less politicized generations never expected. Jacques Habib Sy, a Dakar-based political analyst, says, “The level of political consciousness among young people is growing. You have a new citizenry who know it’s important to go to the poll and express themselves with their ballot cards.”
That could transform politics in Senegal, where even folks sufficiently long in the tooth to have voted in each of the country’s general elections have seen only two parties returned to power. The leftist Socialist Party held sway for 40 years. That rule was broken in 2000 by Wade’s liberal Senegalese Democratic Party (pds). Although back in power, it’s by no means clear that the pds should look forward to repeating its predecessor’s four-decade stint. Despite solid economic growth — 5% on average — during Wade’s first term, most people interviewed in the streets say they have yet to feel the trickle-down benefits. Unemployment among young men remains stubbornly high at over 50%, with many complaining that Wade’s signature big infrastructure projects — his so-called grands travaux include a new airport and a four-lane super-highway — don’t fill bellies once their construction is finished. “I see the roads, I see the bridges, but I cannot eat them,” says Malik Dioum, 25, who works part-time in a downtown Internet café.
High levels of corruption — a perennial scourge of Africa — are also fueling discontent. According to Berlin-based good governance watchdog Transparency International, graft is seen to be a “serious” problem in Senegal. In his victory speech, Wade vowed to target rising levels of corruption — especially that of his adversaries — raising the specter of further political conflict. He also pledged that the majority of Senegalese would have jobs within two years, but failed to outline how he’d achieve that tall task. Back in Dakar, taxi driver Saliou Diouf, 27, pondered an uncertain future: “Next time will be different — until then many things can happen. Né la thiass.”
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